1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for providing the maximum amount of display screen area or "real estate" without sacrificing a computer user's ability to pan the image, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a computer controlled display system in which scrollbars remain hidden from the user until a pointer is positioned by the user, utilizing a pointer control device, over selected locations (i.e. displaying means such as "hot spots") at which time the scrollbars become visible to the user or "pop-up", thereby allowing the user to pan the image on the screen by utilizing the scrollbars in a conventional manner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is common for computer display systems to represent and convey information to a user through various graphic and textual representations of data. Representations of data may take a variety of forms, such as, for example, alphanumeric characters, Cartesian graphs, pictures, as well as shapes of well known physical objects. As is well known in the art, central processing units (CPU's) of computer display systems often display fixed images of vertical and/or horizontal scrollbars which permit text, graphics and the like within the working area of a window to be panned in the direction in which the scroll bar is "dragged" or "clicked". The scrollbars may be activated by placing the pointer over the arrows of the scrollbar and activating a selected switch on a pointer control device or mouse, or alternatively, by placing the pointer on the scrollbar, depressing a preselected switch on the pointer control device, and moving it in the direction in which the text, graphics or the like within the working area is to be panned. However, the vertical and/or horizontal scrollbars displayed on a computer display screen occupy significant portions of the screen's real estate, thereby leaving less screen real estate available for the display of text, graphics and the like.
With the development of software technology aimed at converting text and graphics from the traditional, paper-based form to an electronic form, as stored on CD-ROM, using traditional computer software programs and apparatus, there has been a real, heretofore unmet, need to develop complementary methods which permit the maximization of the screen's real estate without sacrificing the ability to pan the images displayed therein. The need for such methods of maximizing a display screen's real estate is particularly keen among book and magazine publishers, advertising agencies and comic strip publishers, who are increasingly turning to software developers to convert text and graphics from a traditional print medium to an electronic medium. It is critical, however, to the success and viability of those products which have been converted to an electronic medium to be displayed on a computer screen where the size of the image, as well as its visual impact, is not diminished or encumbered by the presence of scrollbars fixedly displayed on the screen.
All of the software environments of the prior art known to the applicant utilize scrollbars that are fixed on a screen and, as such, are a distraction both in terms of visual impact or aesthetics when panning is required. Moreover, they result in a significant reduction in screen real estate that would otherwise be available to more fully display the graphic or other data. The present invention discloses a significant improvement in computer controlled display systems, which results in the maximization of the amount of screen real estate available for displaying graphic or other data without sacrificing the user's ability to pan an image on the display screen.
These known software environments utilize event loop handlers to permit standard operation of the scrollbars fixed on a display screen. An event loop handler is a segment of source code which monitors the position of a pointer on a display, keystrokes, etc. and produces a response (ie. an event) for a corresponding input. The event could be under user control or automated control of the CPU based on predetermined algorithms. The event loop handler incorporates sets of screen coordinate values or key strokes which include an activation table in memory or file form. Paired with each set of screen coordinate values or key presses within an event loop handler is a particular event. Known events include, for example, the activation of a window title bar, window border, action bar, system menu icon, window-sizing icon and scrollbar. When a pointer, in response to movement of a pointer control device, is positioned by a user on the display such that its position corresponds to certain screen coordinates located in the main event loop handler table, the main event loop handler is executed by the CPU, thereby causing the event paired with the set of screen coordinates or key presses, such as the panning of an image through use of a vertical or horizontal scrollbar, to take place. The scrollbar event permits text, graphics and the like within the working area of a window to be panned in the direction in which the scrollbar is pulled. When the position of a pointer, as determined by the main event loop handler or the scrollbar's activation event loop handler, does not correspond to an activation table entry, the event loop handler has not caused the corresponding activation event to take place. It is only when the position of a pointer corresponds to an activation table entry that the CPU executes the scrollbar's event loop handler eliciting the panning functions.